The Source of Power

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The Source of Power

BY V

THEODORE CLINTON FOOTE, Ph.D._(

___

Formerly of the Johns Hopkins University, Lecturer on Psychology;Rector of St. Davids, Roland Park, Baltimore

The unspiritual man rejects these truths of theSpirit of God; to him they are sheer folly, hecannot understand them. And the reason is,that they must be read with the spiritual eye.I Cor. ii: 14.

WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY1922

BALTIMORE

filmno /c^c/V! pCopyright 1922

THEODORE CLINTON FOOTE

Made in United States of America

All rights reserved, including that of translationinto foreign languages, including

the Scandinavian.

COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THEWAVERLY PRESS

By the William3 & Wilkins CompanyBaltimoee, Md., U. S. A.

JUL -3 1922

&GI.A677389

CONTENTS

Introductory Chapters

I. The Threefold Division of Man 7II. Consciousness 10

Part One. Body; Latent Consciousness

I. Body and Intelligence 17II. Where Does the Soul Come From? 20

III. How Mind Can Affect Body 26IV. Intimations of the Subconscious 30

Part Two. Soul; Subconsciousness

I. The Subconscious Mind 35II. Suggestion 38

III. Instincts. Intuition 42IV. Intuitive Deduction 47V. The Senses and Sensations 52

VI. Desire-Will 57VII. Memory and Imaging Power 61VIII. Telepathy 66IX. Kinetic Energy 72X. Mental Healing 77XI. Spiritism 82

XII. Emotion 88XIII. Training of the Soul 92

Part Three. Spirit; Intellect; Clear Consciousness

I. Spirit. Self-Consciousness 101II. Obligation-Will. Law 106

III. Sense-Percepts : 110

IV. The Function of the Intellect 115V. Association of Ideas 120

Part Four. Soul Spiritualized; Higher ConsciousnessI. Imagination 125

II. Understanding. Intuition 130III. The Emotions Spiritualized 134IV. The Kinship of the Soul 140V. The Language of the Soul. Allegory 145

VI. The Life of the Soul. Faith 151VII. Metaphysics 156

VIII. The Will of the Spirit. The Great Choice 161

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS

CHAPTER IThe Threefold Division of Man

The threefold division a problem. Division into body and soulseems more obvious. Materialism ready to collapse. Exist-ence of spirit not capable of demonstrationit must be felt.Unity given by consciousness. Demarcation always hazy.Rationale of threefold division.

One of the greatest masters of the spiritual life who tells us thathis illumination was a direct revelation from God, divided man intobody, soul and spirit.

This division has been in all ages since his time, a problemseeking for a solution. No short and easy solution is possible, forif it was, it would have been found long ago.To the rather dull observer of phenomena a man seems to be

a simple unit; a body that in some way can think. Thematerialist1 has for many generations gloried in the idea of thematerial nature of man. It is time for him to reconsider hisposition before the more than tottering edifice of his own creationcomes crashing upon his head.2

Keener or less prejudiced observers have long since realized thatwe and our bodies are two distinct things. They feel the existenceof a soul and identify it with themselves. They find the commonphraseology of the Bible and of current literature quite compre-hensible. "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?""This night shall thy soul be required of thee."And this is a true intuition; your soul is YOU. There is the

mental body and the immortal soul. It seems quite simple andsatisfactory. But perhaps we shall learn after awhile to be on

our guard when anything having to do with soul seems simple.

1 There will be found in the back of this book a glossary, giving a defini-tion of many terms with which some readers may not be familiar. It alsoenables the writer to state explicitly in what sense he uses these terms.

2 Professor McDougall (Harvard), in his splendid book, "Body andMind," 1920, has, with unanswerable logic, knocked out the last supportof the positivist's theory, and any writer who denies the existence of anincorporeal soul must assume the proof of his position.

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8 THE SOURCE OF POWER

We realize this when we remember St. Paul's division. Whatthen is the spirit?No one knows spirit empirically. We may know the mani-

festation of spirit, but spirit itself is as intangible as thought orlife. We speak of it but we can never grasp it through the in-tellect. Our surest approach to it is through feeling. Thereis no possible proof that can be conceived of whereby we candemonstrate it, and yet we believe in it. It is only spirit thatknows spirit and it knows it spiritually. How then can we knowof this threefold division: body, soul and spirit? Let us see.We sense in this division a logical order. We see an ascending

scale with body at the bottom and spirit at the top. Is thereanything that will give unity to this scale, anything that is possessedby all three, though in very different degrees, that will serve asa connecting link? May this link not be found in the idea ofconsciousness?The spirit then will possess this quality of consciousness in the

highest degree, what may be called clear subconscious; the soulin a lesser degree, not always and often, quite seldom, rising abovethe subconscious; the body in a degree that may be called latentconsciousness. It is not a contradiction in terms when we speakof latent consciousness, for these terms are relative, they expressthe way things seem to us. It is not a mere figure of speech whenwe say the body feels itself ill used, or that it cries out againstpain. This will become clearer when our attention is turned to itin a later chapter. But we must be prepared to find everythingintermingling.

The reason why this division, body, soul and spirit, seems to usconfused and lacking in definition, is for this very reason. It isin a way, as if we tried to divide body into head, trunk and limbs,and think of each as being able to exist by itself. The limbs getlife from the trunk as does the head, and both trunk and limbs arefilled with nerves that center in the brain. Not even to theanatomist are these divisions clear cut. They show the samequalities.

So it is impossible to draw a line between body and soul, or souland spirit. They shade one into the other.

THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF MAN 9

When we compare ourselves with the lower animals, the spiritsprings into recognition. When we compare ourselves with thecommon conception of an angel, the body appears gross andmaterial. And while the threefold division is the true one, asbecomes very evident on further study, the common notion ofbody and mind contains the chief distinction.The soul is the great underlying part in all physical manifesta-

tion. It may be thought of as the principle of life, exhibitingitself in all nature, from the lowest forms of matter to the highest.It is a part of what philosophers call the anima mundi, the soul ofthe world.

The spirit is that part where consciousness is clear. It is theintellect, the factor that studies phenomena, that adapts us to ourenvironment, that trains the generic soul and impresses upon itpersonality, and that ultimately (under the guidance of a ChristSpirit) prepares it to understand, to choose, to possess and toenjoy, the ineffable bliss of immortal life.The truest conception of man, that is, the I, we use so often,

would seem, then, to be that of a soul, with a body, and a spirit,bound together and unified by a line of life or consciousness.

CHAPTER II

Consciousness

Illustrations of consciousness. How it appears to us. Semi-con-sciousnessonly relative. Consciousness may appear as latent.Classification. Expansion of consciousness from childhood tomaturity. It has no limits. Higher consciousness depends uponindividual effort. Unconsciousness. Intuition of continuity.

Everybody knows what is meant when we ask if a sick personis conscious. We mean, is he aware of what is going on aroundhim; does he recognize people? If the answer is no, we have astrange feeling that in some way he is not here, that he has slippedaway from us. We look at him in an entirely different way thanif he were asleep and a touch would cause him to wake and knowus. We get the feeling that a vital something is missing. Welook closely to seek for other signs of life, but no other can takethe place of that.

Consciousness is the light of normal waking life ; the knowledgethat you are yourself, here and now, the recognition of yoursurroundings, the ability to command your mental faculties, torecall the past events of your life and to know how you feel. Thisis what is called clear or self-consciousness. At any moment itis impossible to distinguish this consciousness from life. Theyseem the same thing. If we always had this clear consciousnessand there were no other states, psychology would be comparativelysimple and life would lose much of its mystery/'But suppose you wake up some morning in a strange room.

You have slept soundly and are awakened by the sunlight and thebirds. At first you do not know where you are and you experi-ence a thrill of happiness, you do not care who you are or whereyour are. You are like a person starting out in a new life, withno past. Then comes the rush of memory into the consciousness.You can place yourself now. Thoughts come, and perhaps someone thought seems seeking for recognition. It eludes you, thensuddenly you have it. There is an early train to catch. Where

10

CONSCIOUSNESS 11

was that memory? Where were these thoughts? The light ofconsciousness had not fully illuminated your mind.So there are states of semi-consciousness. Something is lacking.

Part of the memory may not appear, and you are vaguely con-scious of something important but you do not know what it is.Or something may be the matter. You wake up with a fever.Everything is vague. You cannot correctly interpret your sensa-tions. The person who comes in seems strangely unfamiliar.You seem to be on the water. The window curtain is a sail.You are told that you are in bed. You deny it. You are quiteconscious of being in a boat. Where is the reality? This obscureor semi-consciousness seems like being not fully awake, or it is

like dream consciousness, or it is delirium and there are hallucina-

tions. The judgment that decides between truth and delusionsis in abeyance.

Or, again, suppose, when you wake up in a strange room, thememory does not come pressing into consciousness. You cannottell your own name nor where you live. You do not recognize

anyone and are completely at a loss what to do. Your conscious-

ness seems clear but it has lost the past. You are without the old

personality. Your father finds you and takes you home. Your

family are strange to you. They tell you who you are but youhave no consciousness of it. Are you that person? You begin

at once laying in a store of new memories and new associations.

Then suddenly you lose the new consciousness completely and

you are your old self again, with all the old store of memories, and

the second store of memories is gone.Evidently the first store of memories was not lost, but the con-

sciousness of those memories was not a clear consciousness. So

it is necessary to realize a new state or kind of consciousness,

which is called subconsciousness.In our daily experience we find that the subconscious is only

relatively such. Under certain conditions we can use the powers

that we have no clear consciousness of at all. The conscious and

the subconscious shade into each other and in our half waking

states we can detect quite clearly the fantastic imagery of the

subconscious. The judgment, the common sense, is only in thestate of clear consciousness.


And even in the various organs and parts of the body there isa consciousness which is called latent consciousness in compari-son with that which has thought and memory and volition. Apin pricking any part of the body arouses this consciousness sothat it screams with what the clear consciousness recognizes aspain. Normally we are quite unconscious of the processes of lifewithin us.The above will serve to give some idea of the complexity of the

subject.For practical purposes we may divide consciousness into four

classes. 1

First : Latent consciousness, as in cells of low forms of life, andalso in the cells of the body.

Second: Simple consciousness, as in more complex animals,includes instinct, an intelligence limited to the needs of the organ-ism, and some powers which will be referred to later on. In manthis is commonly called subconsciousness.

Third: Self-consciousness, or the clear consciousness of man.Fourth: Higher consciousness, which is developed voluntarily

in the higher types of man.Perhaps the most important fact in regard to consciousness is

the power which it has of unfolding and expanding. To thispower there seems to be no limit. We can grasp this idea clearlyif we note the expansion of consciousness in a child.The consciousness of the baby is of that simple kind which is

the highest that is as yet attained by any of the lower animals.It even appears less than that of the calf that scampers across theyard a few hours after its birth. It is very much alive but ittakes no notice, i.e., it is not conscious of any surroundings. Itsoon, however, becomes conscious of its environment and beforelong it shows by its first smile that it is conscious of well being.This quickly develops into a comprehension of meaning, which isthe first step towards self-consciousness, the meaning of self.But this growth into self-consciousness occupies several years.

The consciousness that he is himself and not any child is attained

1 This classification is based on that of Ouspensky, "Tertium Organum,"1920.

CONSCIOUSNESS 13

about the school age, the time of mixing with other strange boys.From then on, the consciousness undergoes wonderful expansionof the notion of space, in studying geography and astronomy, andin time, in the study of history and geology.The next great jump comes with the development of sex con-

sciousness. Carpenter, in his "Drama of Love and Death," hasmuch to say of the wonderful changes that accompany this de-velopment, in the body as well as in the soul, and the consciousnessexpands to meet all these changes. This is the age when Jesusfirst expresses his consciousness of his Father.From this time on the consciousness expands with everything

that is studied, every book that is read, every new place that isvisited and every country that is traveled over. Business ex-pands it still further until in a high type of man it becomes a worldconsciousness.

Except in the higher type of man or woman (everything fromnow on must be individual and voluntary) no further expansiontakes place. It is only in one direction that expansion can takeplace and that is towards spirit consciousness. Many things pointthe way. Art, music, metaphysics, love, religion. Religionshould be the very door and realization of the higher consciousness,but religion that is choked by dogma or humanitarianism givesbut a feeble impulse toward the Spirit.

In concluding this chapter there is a word to say aboutunconsciousness. Our clear self-consciousness is like a light thatshines brightly and sometimes radiantly, but there is a shade'

one might almost say an extinguisherthat often entirely ob-scures this light and for a time we seem to have no consciousness.Deep sleep and fainting accomplish this result. This shade ap-pears to be the body in certain conditions but we cannot clearlyunderstand it. It may be simply a change from clear to subcon-sciousness. We have, however, a deeply rooted belief that thelight of consciousness cannot be extinguished. This belief is aspiritual intuition and represents for many the eternal truth.2

1 The question of the continuity of consciousness is a metaphysicalrather than a psychological consideration and will be referred to later on.

PART ONEBODY; LATENT CONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER I

Body and Intelligence

The body manifests ideal of the Creator. Anatomy and physi-ology not within scope of this book. Marvellous intelligenceseen in body building. The sperm. The creation of cells. Thebody human and divine.

The human body is the most marvellously beautiful creation inall the realm of the visible. Physiology cannot justly describeits wonders, nor art depict its charm. Nothing nobler, moreexpressive of conscious dignity, or more instinct with lovelinesshas ever been imagined than the body of that fortunate creaturethat is made in the image of its Creator.

It is hard to say which is more worthy of admiration, the multi-complexity of the organism or its superb adaptation to the ends forwhich it is designed. The description of skeleton, muscle andorgan, of brain, nerve systems and plexuses, of heart, arteries andveins, and other vital organs and their functions must be left to theanatomist and physiologist. They do not come within the scopeof this book, except as they are the manifestation and vehicle ofsomething that is far more surprising.For by far the most striking feature of the body, and that which

does not appear to the observer, and that which materialisticscience has ever refused to consider, is that every minutest particleof it is instinct with life and intelligence, quite apart from the mindand spirit that dwell in, and give unity to the organism.No adequate conception of the marvellous character of this

intelligence can be formed unless we consider the development ofthe body from the microscopic germ and sperm from which ittakes its origin. It is as if at this very beginning of the body anintelligence had been imparted to it which was commanded tobuild it according to a pattern most exquisitely impressed upon it.In all animal life there is nothing more remarkable than the per-sistent purpose which this intelligence shows in carrying out thedesign with which it is animated. In the almost infinite number

17


of outward forms in which this intelligence manifests itself andamidst an incredible variation in the individuals of any species,there is shown the most amazing fidelity to the archetypal idea ofthat species.And this is no blind intelligence which makes, as it were, a hit

or miss try at the realization of an idea. Within the compass ofits ability this intelligence acknowledges no defeat.

It is not merely a generic or specific intelligence which worksfor the perpetuation of general forms, but it is an intelligence whichrecognizes the individual and responds to its needs.How else can we account for the claw which is developed to

replace the one that an individual lobster has lost? How elsecan we explain the repeated production of new members whichhave been cut off from the body of a newt? The wounds which ourbodies may receive are repaired, new tissue is created, new veinsare developed, new nerves are extended, new skin is formed.Viewed from another aspect this intelligence is equally astound-

ing. Consider for a moment the fertilized egg of a fish lying wherethe parent had deposited it. Is there any scientist alive that cantell or even imagine what step must first be taken to produce thefish that is to come from that egg? And yet that microscopicspermatozoon does not hesitate an instant. It knows preciselywhat to do next and it does it.But the materialistic scientist tries to conceal his chagrin by

taking refuge in camouflaging expressions. This is the mysteryof life. It is indeed. But if that same scientist knew as muchas that microscopic germ knows the whole world would resoundwith praises of his unthinkable intelligence. Why then denyintelligence to the sperm?The human body originates in the union of the sperm and germ

of its parents. This union is far from being a simple matter. Thehuman mind can hardly grasp the complexity of the operation. 1But once begun there ensues a creative multiplication of cells

compared with which the multiplication of the loaves by theMaster is the simplest of miracles. This multiplying of cellsnever ceases until that organism has completed its allotted span.

1 See Carpenter's "Drama of Love and Death," Chapter II.

BODY AND INTELLIGENCE 19

Each cell as it is created receives a separate intelligence. It is aliving part of a living whole. But what is the intelligence of thewhole? What is it that gives unity of purpose and action to thecomplex body?

This we shall consider in the next chapter. In the presentchapter it is the body as a whole, the wonder of its incrediblephysical perfections, externalizing a thought, could we but read it,that would reveal the mystery and the purpose of the universe.And so the body of man stands forth in all its complexity of

organic detail, developed by a mind so singularly responsive to thewill of its creator, so mysteriously conscious of the purpose andend of all that multiplication of cells, so splendidly endowed withan incomprehensible creative power, so superbly gifted with asense of eternal charm and beauty, so human, so divine.

CHAPTER II

Where Does the Soul Come From?

Ancient theories. Moneron described by Haeckel. Definitionof Intelligence. No organs. Purposive action. Unity of com-plex organism. Coordination of cells. What this central intel-ligence does. This intelligence not located in brain. Why havebrain and other organs? Development of brain and intellect.What for? Beginning of soul. Intelligence varies according tocomplexity. Not different in kind. Powers exhibited in ascend-ing scale. The soul of man. Where does it originate? Gapbetween organized and unorganized matter. Statement ofMcDougall. Man's pathway from the moneron to Christ. Noteon materialism.

The most ancient theory of the origin of the human soul isprobably that which is known as traducianism. This theory takesinto account the various points of similarity between a child andits parents which are due to heredity and holds that the soulpasses from the parents to the offspring. It is the theory thatharmonizes best with modern scientific opinion.Another ancient theory is called creationism. This is apparently

the expression of repugnance to the naturalnessthe brutalearthinessof the former theory. It declares that the soul ofeach child is created by God and does not attempt to explain thehereditary traits. It is characteristic of Christian theology andis taught by the schoolmen.Each thinker must choose for himself, but in order to have a

basis for an opinion it is necessary to study the manifestations ofanimal life in the earliest and simplest forms. Let us begin withthe moneron described by Haeckel.

This famous German materialist writes as follows: 1

The monera are the simplest of permanent cytods. Their entire bodyconsists merely of soft, structureless plasson. However thoroughly weexamine them with the most delicate chemical reagents and the strongestoptical instruments, we find that all the parts are completely homogeneous.

1 The quotation is taken from Hudson as is the idea of its application.

20

WHERE DOES THE SOUL COME FROM 21

The monera are, therefore, in the strictest sense of the word, "organismswithout organs;" or even in a strictly philosophical sense, they might noteven be called "organisms," since they possess no organs, since they arenot composed of various particles. They can be called organisms only inso far as they are capable of exercising the organic phenomena of life, ofnutrition, reproduction, sensation and movement. If we tried to con-struct, a priori, the simplest conceivable organism we should always becompelled to fall back upon such a moneron.

The attention of the reader is particularly called to the followingpoints: The one-celled organism exercises all the different kindsof activity which are found in higher animals. It can digest foodand transform it into the substance of its body. It can exercisethe power of tocomotion. It can feel and respond to stimuli. Itcan reproduce itself by segmentation. It can convey to each newcreature the properties of the parent cell.

Thus the single cell manifests all the powers necessary to thehigher forms of life. Assimilation of food, locomotion, sensationand reaction, reproduction and heredity.

If we think of these activities in a higher animal the unprej-udiced person will not deny that they exhibit intelligence. Buthow can we think of intelligence in connection with the moneron?Certainly if our notion of intelligence presupposes a consciousknowledge of what it is doing and why it is doing it, it is absurdto apply the word to such a creature. But if we define intelli-gence in its simplest form as the ability to adapt means to ends,i.e., to do purposive acts, it is illogical to deny it to any creaturethat can seek its food, select and appropriate what it needs, re-spond to external stimuli and hand down to its progeny one halfof itself.

Darwin, in "Vegetable Mould," p. 97, writes: "If worms have thepower of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of anobject and of their burrows, as seems to be the case, they deserveto be called intelligent."

It seems that the great naturalist was unwilling to accept his

own conclusion and acknowledge that intelligence can exist apartfrom the brain.

Attention is also called to the fact that the moneron has no

organs. The intelligence it exhibits is not dependent upon a


brain, and its sensations are not localized in senses. The immensesignificance of these facts is not to be appreciated in a moment.

The next step is to consider the coordination of cells in a com-plex organism. It is self evident that two cannot act in harmonyunless some central unity has been established. The commonthousand-legged bug would make but indifferent progress if nointelligence directed which legs were to move together. In reality

its rapidity is astounding. The more one studies the lower formsof life the greater is his amazement. The segmentation by whichthe protozoa reproduce themselves is a tremendously complex

process. The differentiation of form in the animalcula is incredi-ble. The same is true in the individuals of any species. Thevariations in color and texture of a butterfly's wing, coming as itdoes out of the repulsive, dirty slime that fills the pupa, are simply

incredible. Let the materialists explain it as they will,2 the un-

prejudiced mind cannot but recognize the intelligence shown inthese phenomena.But this is far from all. Indeed it is quite impossible to enu-

merate the varied manifestations of this intelligence. The sper-matozoon builds each individual body. The knowledge of alobster that a claw is lost is only less remarkable than the powerthat replaces it. The power of the newt to rebuild parts of theorganism that have been amputated points to aD intelligence thatis no hit and miss affair, no race inheritance that reproducesblindly a generic form, but one that has the purpose of buildingthat individual and restoring the parts necessary to its perfection.We have spoken of intelligence in its simplest form, and we are

accustomed to think of it as developing in higher animals.Whether or not this is a true idea, we can now give to this intelli-gence a more complete definition. It is a mental power, antece-dent to and independent of, reason, experience, or education,producing growth and development towards a definite end.

After describing very inadequately what this intelligence cando the writer wishes to call attention again to the fact that it isnot necessarily located in the brain. The experiments of Ham-

2 The reader is referred to a note appended to this chapter in whichsome points overlooked by materialists are considered.


mond referred to in chapter IX demonstrate this at least in thecase of lower forms.The question then arises, why do we have brains if this intelli-

gence can function without it? The answer to this logical querywill run somewhat as follows. The lower forms of life exist in avery simple environment. They move comparatively little fromthe place where they came into existence. Their needs are fewand their food is near at hand or they perish. The lower formshave only rudimentary brains if any at all. But such brains asthey have are used by the mind to adapt the creature to its en-vironment to enable it to perform acts other than those pertain-ing to generic environment which does not take accident intoaccount. For instance, the instinctive intelligence of a chickenserves admirably for the barnyard life, but its brain is intendedto adapt it to a wider environment. It is frequently inadequate,as yet, to cope with the automobile. Now it is found that thebrain, especially the cerebrum, develops exactly according to theneeds of the animal and in response to its mental effort. It isclearly an evolution. The primitive man who uses tools andweapons has a much larger cerebrum than any animal. But thecivilized European has developed, by the use of intellect, a farsuperior brain. Its use, however, in every instance, has been toadapt its possessor more perfectly to an ever widening and morecomplex environment.But for the purpose of this present inquiry, let us leave the brain

and the intellect entirely out of consideration, and fix the attentionon the intelligence, the subconscious mind that exists, as we haveseen, apart from the brain.When did this mind, this soul, originate? For this mind is the

soul, regarded apart from the complete organism we call man.There is nothing clearer than the difference between the or-

ganized and the inorganic; that which is what it is because of thelife within, and that which has no life; that which moves of itselfand that which cannot; the tortoise and the stone. The clearnessof the difference is as nothing to the vastness of it.

Professor McDougall in "Body and Mind," p. 333, writes,

The gap between the organic and the inorganic in nature is an immenseone; the two kinds of material phenomena present fundamental differ-


ences and there is every appearance of the incoming of a new factor withthe first living things.

This new factor we understand to be life or soul. It is not adevelopment of nor evolution from, anything that went before.It is a new factor which can owe its existence to nothing but thesource of all life. We feel, as Ouspensky says, that "Every lifeis the manifestation of a part of some self-conscious whole."

Beginning with the advent of life which manifests itself asgrowth and intelligence, we find that each creature from themoneron to man has this intelligence in a degree suited to itscomplexity but not differing in kind.

It is also to be noted that there is always an intuitive perceptionof the laws of its being, deduction, however rudimentary, intelli-gence that directs growth and seeks to preserve life, memory, emo-tions, kinetic energy, and some sort of telepathic communication.This is the soul of man and these are its powers.The curious fact that the human embryo in its successive stages

of development, is indistinguishable from that of lower forms oflife, suggests the thought that every human soul must travellife's pathway from the moneron to Christ.

NOTE

Points overlooked in the materialistic thesis

Although the intelligence of life in the lower organisms is deniedby materialistic scientists, they are obliged, however, to explainthe phenomena in some way. So these phenomena are ascribedto "behavior," and this is said to have been gradually acquiredthrough the ages as a "race inheritance."Now there are two points in this explanation that are entirely

overlooked.The first is, How did the organism exist before it acquired this

behavior? These acts which are described as behavior are essentialto the life of the organism. Without the intelligence to seek itsfood no creature however simple in structure could survive.Without the intelligence to assimilate the food the organism woulddie. If it had intelligence to do these things at the start, why didit need to acquire the "behavior?"


These scientists cannot or will not realize that matter of itselfhas no such ability. It can do but one thing and that is to stayin one place until some outside force moves it. Hence unless therewere intelligence enough to seek, appropriate and digest food,life could not last. And no life would now be on the earth if thefirst creatures had not had this intelligence.But the minds of the scientists abhor the idea of the first mani-

festation of life on this globe. They seem to fancy that this issome one else's problem.The second point is this. Suppose it is race inheritance (which

is of course a very real thing) that has taught a tree to send itsbranches to the sunny spots, and suppose this useful idea wasstored up in the seed and the seed grew into a tree in a grove, andone branch had to grow a couple of yards longer than any otherbranch to get its leaves in the sun, how did it know where the sunnyspot was? Is it to be supposed that this precise situation had beenrepeated until it became an inherited idea? Then why do not alltrees develop one long branch?Or to take another case. A tree sends its roots a long distance

to get into a drain pipe. How did it know this pipe was there?It is easy to fashion fine phrases like race inheritance and makethem an excuse for exact thought, and willingness to accept aconclusion. But what can a scientists do who starts with theproposition that life can exist without intelligence? Oh, wonderfulmind, that can believe that the life of a rose or a tree is a two-penny elixir in a test tube! What can it do but blunder along,until some really big man dares to say, This looks like intelligenceand acts like intelligencewhy, this is intelligence! And thescientific world will hail him as the discoverer of INTELLI-GENCE in life! Psychologists that study in the laboratory andthe clinic would gain much by coming out into the open andseeing real life as it lives. Study roots. Find out why one maybe twice as long as the others.

CHAPTER III

How Mind Can Affect Body

The insolvable problem of the materialists. Their proposition isthat body is matter which makes thought. They cannot explainhow thought is received. Huxley an agnostic. The sense ofreality dependent on the idea of hardness. The mind createshardness as it does a ship. The nature of matter. Sense ofhardness due to grossness of touch. The x-ray touch. Sightdeceived by film production. Sense of material really lost.The reality of spirit and intelligence. Body instinct with life.Intelligence understands thought from the outside.

In the preceding chapters we have presented to ourselves thehuman body as a complex organism of millions of cells, each withan intelligence and consciousness (latent) of its own, and possessinga central mind which has not only created this body but is stillcreating it and caring for its well being. We can truly say thatthe body is instinct with life. But we have no clear notion ofthis because we are accustomed to think of body as matter andtherefore as quite distinct from life and thought and consciousness,and indeed in an entirely different category.The problem that we have before us now is how thought can

affect matter. This is the great stumbling block of the materi-alists. How can so immaterial a thing as thought produce onmatter a tangible effect? That it does so is evident. The mouthwaters we say at the thought of certain food. The materialisttries to avoid the difficulty by insisting that the body producesthought. Their fundamental position is that the body is matter.They have some theory, mechanistic or other, to explain the factof thought. They are forced to hold some such theory or admitthe existence of spirit. This they positively deny.By this theory they explained how the brain manufactured, or

squeezed out, thought, 1 but how the thought of another could affectthe brain-matter is quite another question. They did not venture

1 A German materialist in his bitter antagonism to anything spiritual,uses a crass expression that decency forbids one to quote.

26

HOW MIND CAN AFFECT BODY 27

to suggest that the brain sucked it in, they simply gave it up.Huxley was sincere enough to admit that after all the soul mightexist, but he could not prove it, and called himself an agnostic.The main trouble lay in the sense of tremendous, objective,

reality connected with matter, and the intangibility of thought.Let us see if we can find a solution of this problem in the modern

scientific theory of matter.The first step will be to try to understand our ordinary notion

of matter. We have a general idea that everything around us ismatter, especially the hard things, such as rock, wood, iron, etc.,but the idea also includes things like paper, water or gas. Butwhen we ask ourselves whether each of these things is matter, ora form of matter, we find we have an idea of matter apart fromthese various forms. But has this notion any proof? Have weever seen the smallest particles of matter apart from one of theseforms? The answer is no. So far as any scientist has been ableto find out there does not exist a gramme of matter that is noteither wood or iron or whatnot. And yet materialistic science isbuilt on the assumption that matter and force alone exist.But if we do not know matter apart from form, what do we really

know? Let us acknowledge at once that whatever we know comesto us through one only source, our sense perceptions, which areinterpreted by thought. And what does this tell us? That ourthought knows these perceptions through the senses and picturesfor us what we call, in a general way, nature. And it also adds tothis picture a sense of reality, which we seem to attribute to thesense of hardness.

It is then an idea conceived by our mind. Of this we are sure.We also know that our ideas are creative. The mind of man cancreate a ship. Let us illustrate this to ourselves.

When we see an iron ship we know that the thought of it mustfirst have existed in the mind of the builder. We know that hehad thought out the problem of making iron float and we can seeand recognize hundreds of ways in which he had adapted meansof various kinds to produce the great end he had in view. Theship then is a visible manifestation of his idea, the expression of the

idea formed by the imagination of the builder.


True enough, you say, but the workmen constructed the shipout of materials that are hard and impenetrable, and very unlike

a thought.

Now this is the real gist of the question. Matter is hard andimpenetrable and thought is etherial and intangible. Matter maybe the result of an idea in the mind, as the ship is, but both are

hard things and thought is impalpable.Let us take up, once for all, this sensation of hardness. Does

it exist in the thing or in the mind?We can illustrate it with a piece of steel. Science has something

very wonderful to tell us about this piece of steel. It is composedof atoms which are small beyond any human power of observation.Each atom is composed of etheric particles or electrons which arein perpetual motion about the center which is thought to be light.These particles are so small that the distance separating them,

in comparison with their size, is as great as from the earth to the sun.

The number of particles in each atom and the speed of theirrevolutions are thought to determine the character of the atom,

whether it is iron, wood, gold, etc.What becomes then of the sense of hardness? It is evidently

due to the grossness of our sense of touch. Had we a touch asdelicate as the x-ray we should perceive no hardness at all, andour sense of matter would seem the flimsiest pretext of an idea.Moreover the same result would be obtained if we considered

the question in relation to the sense of sight instead of feeling.

A film production does not deceive us because we are mentallyaware of its unreality. But we can imagine such a productionso perfect that if we did not know it beforehand as a film we mighteasily be deceived. If now, in addition to the deception of our

eyes we were not able to prove it unreal by our touch, how shouldwe ever know the real from the unreal?

This question of matter has been considered at some lengthnot only to show how scientific investigations are shaking thefoundations of materialism, but also because we are all likely tofind the sensation of hardness confusing to our thought of spiritualthings. We depend so much upon touch and sight, in judgingwhat is real and what is not real, that spirit, the one eternal reality,stands little chance of any recognition at all.

HOW MIND CAN AFFECT BODY 29

The question of this chapter, how mind can affect body, is quitea simple one when we learn to realize that the body is instinctwith life and intelligence. Not a cell of the body is without thisintelligence, not a nerve that does not respond to the slighteststimulus, and receive orders from the central intelligence as towhat is to be done. The mind, the central intelligence, has notthe slightest difficulty in conveying its directions to any part ofthe body.How then is it different with a thought from the outside? We

do not have to think of this thought as making creases in the graymatter of the brain! No wonder the Positivist gave up the prob-lem ! The human spirit it is that thinks, and a thought sent toit is spiritually understood; we cannot express it otherwise. Wespeak of the mouth "watering," and we do not stop to think whatit means. The flesh of which those glands are formed cannot actwithout an intelligence that understands, and a response thatproduces a physical effect. That they do act is indeniable. Hencethere is in them an intelligence capable of responding to the sensepercept of smell, and even to the thought conveyed by the wordof another.

The answer to the question with which this chapter deals maybe stated as follows. The organism, which we call the body isinstinct with life and permeated by an intelligence that has notonly the power to direct all the actions of the body, but also toreceive and understand thoughts which come from other intelli-gences like itself.

CHAPTER IV

Intimations of the Subconscious

Three states of consciousness. The conscious or intellectual mind.The subconscious mind. Phenomena we are not conscious ofcausing. Balancing, digesting, healing, feeling, dreaming, sleep-walking, doing things from habit. Dreams not consciously re-called are lost. Incredible things done without consciousness.Intimation of the subconscious.

The subconscious mind means those intelligent powers withinus that are possessed in potentiality by all the lower orders of theanimal world. In the very lowest it exists as latent consciousness.In the higher as latent or simple consciousness. In man also it isstill for the most part latent and simple, but through study re-sulting in expansion of consciousness it is ever pressing towardself-recognition. Even in the most highly organized of the animalswhose consciousness has been stimulated by contact with man,it is possible that there may be a glimmering of self.The powers of the mind, like intellect and reason, which we are

clearly conscious of possessing, belong to the conscious mind andwill be studied in due course as we rise in the scale of consciousness.But if the subconscious mind is, as its name implies, below the

threshold of consciousness, how do we know that we possess sucha mind at all?We become aware of the existence of the subconscious mind

because of certain phenomena not caused by the conscious mind.They are well known but not so commonly understood. Let usexamine a few such phenomena. How do we balance ourselvesin walking? How do we digest food, heal wounds, feel happy,remember, dream, walk in our sleep, do things from habit?Now the most cursory examination of these phenomena will

convince us that we do them but are not conscious of how we dothem; therefore they are not the work of the conscious mind. Ababy a year old with no self-conscious mind at all, has usuallymastered the problem of keeping the center of gravity within theoblong square formed by its feet, and having mastered this law

30

INTIMATIONS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS 31

proceeds to add to it the laws of energetic propulsion and ofmomentum. Having learned these laws with marvellous accuracyit can run and jump without once breaking them. Years after-wards, when the self-conscious mind is struggling with the facts otphysics, it will learn these laws slowly and painfully. We oftenfail to appreciate the little ironies of nature. But then a calf doesall this and more the day it is born.How do we digest food? We may see food digest in a test tube

in a laboratory, but that experiment is performed by a consciousmind, and no conscious mind performs the act of digestion withinus. It is one thing to tell what is done and it is quite anotherthing to do it without knowing it.How do we heal wounds? The words have a strange sound.

We are inclined to say we do not heal wounds. Something elsedoes, Nature, God. There is a complete realization of our uncon-sciousness of doing anything. It is the same in regard to the doc-tor. He cannot heal other persons' wounds and he knows it.There are two thoughts that make us aware that we do the healing.First, there are cases on record where wounds refused to heal untilthe patient actively willed it. And if we digest food why shouldit seem any greater thing to heal wounds? Anyway, we canplainly see one thing: the power that heals wounds acts withoutour consciousness of it.How do we feel happy? One may say that this is the secret of

the good. But even the good have only part of the secret. Theyhave discovered the conditions and can provide them at any time,which is all they need to know, but they do not so easily come tounderstand how the happiness comes.How do we dream? One can easily find out how to remember

dreams. You must recall them the moment you are awake andimpress them on your mind as you would the details of a pictureyou had only a momentary glimpse of. If you do not do this youwill retain only the fact of having seen the picture, that you had adream. Now this conscious fact ought to teach us something.That dream had no conscious existence until you gave it one.Until you impressed it consciously on your mind it was only the"stuff that dreams are made of," and that was unconscious stuff.


When once impressed on the conscious mind it shares the realitythat such facts have.But this matter cannot be put aside quite so easily. You say,

if the dream was a subconscious affair, how is it that I am con-scious at times that I am dreaming? That is the sort of questionthat proves that we have intellect, and it points to that mysteriousshading of the outskirts of the consciousness that prevents ourgiving it definition, to use the word in the photographer's sense aswell as the philosopher's. It points to the fact of a shadowyborderland between the waking state of clear consciousness and thesleeping state of unconsciousness. It is the door to the subcon-scious, the key that unlocks the mystery of how the consciousmind can affect the subconscious, of which more anon.How do we walk in our sleep? Perhaps you are one of the for-

tunate ones who do not. But you surely know of those who do.The writer was waked up one night by his father in the fronthall while trying to put his feet into the sleeves of an overcoat.

How had he seen to walk safely along the halls and stairs? Cer-tainly not with conscious sense or he would not have been foundattempting a senseless act. But somnambulists frequently do in-credible things. They have been known to walk with eyes closed;to get out of windows and walk along the eaves of a house; to turnand retrace their steps and enter the window again with evidentunconsciousness of danger. They saw without eyes. Heightmeant nothing to them. They had purpose and volition withoutself-consciousness. We all know that we can do much betterwork when we are not self-conscious.How do we do things from habit? At the risk of wearying the

reader, let me point out that the things we do habitually we dosubconsciously. Few persons without previous preparation cantell how they get dressed. Yet no one hesitates when engagedin that operation. And so of scores of other most familiar things.

It seems then that we have clear intimations of a subconsciouslife going on within us. A mind functioning quite differentlyfrom our conscious mind and possessing ways of arriving at lawsand of applying them, of seeing, of feeling no fear, of preparingemotional states, of picturing, of experiencing a succession ofevents, etc., that the conscious mind has to study laboriously.Thus only can one get any conception of the subconscious mind.

PART TWOSOUL; SUBCONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER I

The Subconscious Mind

Conception of subconscious mind a growth. The soul of theworld differentiated into individuals. Duality. Great intelli-gence exhibited without conscious volition. Interaction of twominds. Illustrations. Subconscious mind acts from suggestion.Manifestations to be looked for in overlooked phenomena. Theendowments of subconscious mind.

The conception of the subconscious mind is attained only by-degrees, and necessarily so because it lacks clear definition. Ittends to mingle with the corporeal as when the body seems tomelt with intense emotion. It is always pressing upward intoconscious existence, asserting a right which nobody will feel likedenying it who has studied its wonderful capacities. It even goeshigher still and in the pure light of the spirit reveals the power oftransmuting its earthly emotions into heavenly attributes.

In view of what has already been pointed outthe creativepower of building and sustaining the bodies of all living thingswith an intelligence and purpose that our minds can hardlygraspthe subconscious mind seems to be the great soul of theworld, differentiated into individuals and manifesting itself ac-cording to the capabilities of each species. It is, as it were, partand parcel of the ocean of life that ebbs and flows through allexistence, sometimes hardly distinguishable from unorganizedmatter, sometimes rising to crests of splendid intelligence.But when we speak of the conscious mind and the subconscious

mind, ought we to think of two minds or of a single mind mani-festing itself in two ways, in two states? To the writer the lastseems the true hypothesis, although it must be confessed that thephenomena constantly suggest duality. If this is borne in mind,it makes little difference how we speak of it. The least confusingway is the best for each thinker. 1

1 There is a curious duality running through all nature, as the writer ofEcclesiasticus (42:15) puts it, "All things are double one against another."

35


Let us go on then with the thought of the last chapter. Theconscious mind in us is studying the subconscious. In the phenom-ena of sleep-walking we find that there are things done withoutconsciousness that seem to demand very great intelligence andjudgment. And there were in these phenomena purely muscularacts that were performed unconsciously.Now everyone knows that there are muscles that we cannot

control by the will, such as those which function in digestion andin the action of the heart, although these latter can be consciouslystimulated or retarded. There are also muscles which act volun-tarily as well as involuntarily, like those of the eyelids and facialmuscles. This is the reason why we can read things in the face.The involuntary, uncontrolled expression is the result of the in-voluntary emotions. The whole body at times expresses dejectionor the reverse, and this power of the subconscious mind to controlthese muscles prepares us for what often happens in times of greatemergency, when this mind springs into supreme control and actswith inconceivable rapidity, accuracy and intelligence, in savingour very lives. Anyone who runs an automobile realizes that thecontrolling power tends to become subconscious.The idea of duality in the mind is largely due to a kind of inter-

action which takes place between the conscious mind and the sub-conscious. At the same time we perceive that the ideal is asynchronous action which is apparently frequently realized. Theconscious mind is evidently perfectly known to the subconscious,and because of this it is able to influence and control it by sugges-tion. On the other hand, the conscious mind must be in a stateof extreme passivity if it is to get the slightest glimpse of thecontents of the subconscious.

This passive state exists in the condition of semi-consciousnesswhen we are half awake. There is an amusing incident of amonk, who, in the half awake state in which he found himselfwhen aroused for matins at a very early hour of the morning, wasconscious of one mind anathematizing him for getting into sucha life, while the other was calmly anticipating the enjoyment of theservice. The writer recently had a curious and instructive ex-perience. Awaking in a state of terror from a particularly horridnightmare he took his subconscious mind severely to task forgetting him into such a painful condition. The mind immediately

THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 37

responded by casting the blame upon the conscious mind forhaying allowed itself to suggest a similar situation while waking.This excuse was accepted for a few moments, but on becomingthoroughly awake it was realized that no such imagining had beenindulged in. The accusation was apparently false. The reason-ing power of this mind is clear. It is constantly acting from sug-gestion, hence suggestion had caused the nightmare. Perhaps itwas right. We do not realize all that is suggested to the subcon-scious mind, a flash of imagination, the words of others, thethought that passes and is forgottenany of these might haveserved as a suggestion. One does not like ideas of this kind anymore than one likes to think of giving an account of every idleword. Perhaps this is the account.

There is another incident that illustrates the dual character ofthe mind. A person who allowed himself to be frequently hypno-tized for experimental purposes has assured the writer that he wasoften plainly conscious of two minds, one of which seemed betterthan the other.We may put down then what we have discovered about the

subconscious mind.It is usually hidden from our observation and we must seek its

manifestations in the apparently insignificant and generally over-looked phenomena of daily life. The writer is more and moreconvinced that all the riddles of the universe are veritably holdingout their key to us had we only the sense to see it.The subconscious mind is one of the greatest realities that we

know of. It is endowed with immense intelligence and creativepower. It is possessed of instinct or intuition of bodily needs andknows what to do in vital emergencies, and acts with a rapidityand skill that the conscious mind has never attained. It reasonsintuitively but has no sense of the truth or falsity of its premises,accepting these without question from the conscious mind. Itworks in harmony with the conscious mind in all habitual actsand renders many things possible, as, for example, playing thepiano, that would otherwise be impossible. It is the seat of theemotions. It acts, we feel. Finally it is the child of the con-scious mind so far as obedience goes and is amenable to everysuggestion made to it. What a wonderful thought this isandwhat a terrifying thought

!

CHAPTER II

Suggestion

All acts of subconscious mind due to suggestion. Responsibilityfor suggestion. Powers of subconscious mind. Assumes anotherpersonality. Definition of suggestion. Dream fantasy. Abso-lute belief in the thing suggested. Blindness produced. Hypno-tism. Illustrations. Insensibility to pain produced by sugges-tion. Hypnosis places conscious mind in abeyance. Moral riskprevented by moral principles acting as potent suggestions.Hypnotism to be avoided by amateurs. Suggestion the key tomany phenomena.

The subconscious mind is always amenable to suggestion.Except for the one function of creating, maintaining and pre-

serving the well being and, indeed, the very life of the body

a

most potent suggestion, impressed upon it in a manner we canonly speculate uponthe subconscious mind does nothing that isnot suggested to it by our own conscious mind or that of another.A strange and bewildering fact! A fact of such far reaching

import in the physical, intellectual and moral spheres, that fewwould choose to assume the responsibility were it not forced uponthem.

It becomes more and more clear as we study the subconsciousmind that it is like a docile and credulous child with wonderfulpotentialities of intelligence, intuition, memory, feeling, energy andself expression but no will, no initiative. Its powers seem to haveno limits of time or space, and there is no sense of personality.It believes what it is told without question. It assumes withouta qualm any personality that is suggested to it. It is the childplaying it is someone else with positive convictionbut only whenthe mistress is away, when the conscious mind is in abeyance.

It will be the purpose of the following chapters to prove thatthese statements are true.

We begin with the fact of suggestibility which was discoveredby Liebault in 1866. His school is still to be found at Nancy.The universality of this law was enunciated by Hudson some

38

SUGGESTION 39

thirty years ago as The Law of Psychic Phenomena, which heapplied in explaining mental healing and the phenomena ofspiritism.

It is well to understand just what is meant by suggestion.Hudson defines it as the power in man to control by purely mentalprocesses the functions and conditions of a human personality.Its chief subject is the subjective (subconscious) mind which isamenable to suggestion in sleep as well as when the body is awake.From this it is easy to explain the fantastic imagery of dreams

which are largely influenced by peripheral stimuli and by autosuggestions; and the lack of any criterion, by which to test thetruth of the impressions, gives rise to the vagaries and absurditiesby which dreams are so often characterized.The amazing credulity of the subconscious mind and also the

power of suggestion to affect the senses, are well shown by Mc-Dougall in "Body and Mind." A person in the hypnotic state wastold that his left eye was blind. He was immediately unable tosee with that eye. In this case it was possible to prove that theman was not making believe. The man did not know the exactangle at which an object advanced from behind on the left sidewould come into vision of the right eye. The experimenters did,and were thus able to prove that the blindness of the left eye wasnot feigned.

It must be understood that hypnotism is itself the result of thesuggestion that the subject is asleep. This sleep differs in no re-spect from natural sleep except that it is induced, and that thereis rapport between the sleeper and the hypnotizer.

Let us take a typical stage experiment that was witnessed in a

western town. The hypnotist had invited men to come up to thestage in a small theatre. The men who responded had never seenthe hypnotist before. They sat down and were soon put to sleepby the man suggesting to them that they were getting sleepy,they could not keep their eyes open, they were asleep. The manthen said, "Now you are going to wake up and go fishing. Thereare the rods." The men immediately stood up, went for theimaginary rods, came down to the footlights and commencedfishing in the orchestra, the man having previously pointed out

that there was the water. They went through, with the air of

40 THE SOURCE OF TOWER

perfect reality, all the process of fishing, baiting their hooks, gettingtheir lines tangled and untangling them, pulling up fish, jumpingto catch them as they flopped about, and all with the jocularitythat devotees exhibit.

It is clear that the mere suggestion produced the apparentreality of rods, water, bait, fish, etc., in the minds of the hypnotizedmen. In the same way a man may be intoxicated by the sugges-tion that water is whisky, and be restored to soberness by whiskywith the suggestion that it will produce that effect. If it is sug-gested that a man is a dog, he thoroughly acts the part and isquite likely to bite anyone who irritates him. This state is not apassing one but lasts until the suggestion is removed by anothersuggestion.

Very deep sleep can be produced by hypnotism and in thiscataleptic condition the body is entirely insensible to pain. Im-mediate danger and very concentrated attention, as in an officerleading soldiers in an attack, or an orator who is taxing his mindto the limit, produce a hypnotic insensibility to pain. The soldiershot in battle experiences no pain. There is an anecdote of HenryClay whose attention could not be distracted by the insertion ofa pin into the flesh while he was speaking.With regard to insensibility to pain there seems to be but one

conclusion to be drawn, and that is that hypnosis produces aloss of clear consciousness. When it is a deep state, there is atotal abeyance on the part of the conscious mind and nothing isremembered that happens during this condition. Yet in thiscondition a person may be very active physically and mentally.He is not using the conscious mind or he would recall what hap-pened afterwards, as he does in partial hypnosis. Furthermoreit cannot be denied that he is conscious of himself in the characterthat has been forced upon him. There seems to be but one solu-tion to the problem. The subconscious is abte to function as aconscious mind, under the influence of suggestion. Now the sub-conscious mind does not seem to function through the brain, aswe shall see in considering Intuition. Therefore it cannot be af-firmed with certainty that a person loses consciousness becausethe brain does not function.

SUGGESTION 41

A good deal used to be said about the moral risk that personsincurred when they submitted to hypnotism. It has been proved,however, that any attempt to make them act contrary to thedeeply rooted principles of their moral nature inevitably destroysthe hypnotic state and awakens them to a normal condition. Theexplanation is that the moral principles are the constantly repeatedsuggestions of a lifetime and are stronger than any adverse sug-gestion. It is here that we can get an idea of faith as a lifelongsuggestion of the truths of religion, not to be readily destroyed bythe doubt of the conscious mind.Hypnotism is one of the keys to the subconscious mind and there

are others that need not be mentioned. In the hands of expertsthey may do no harm but they are things to be avoided and letalone. They all tend to undermine the moral character and toweaken the personality.

It is hoped that the points brought out in this chapter will bethoroughly grasped because they are essential to the understandingof psychic phenomena, especially those observed in mental healing,spiritism, dual personality, etc.

CHAPTER III

Instincts; Intuition

Inspiration does not dispense from the need of education. Instinctand intuition defined. Cannot be habit in the first instance.Illustrations. Reason in a baby. Prodigies show intuitiveknowledge of laws of numbers, music, measuring, direction,time. Illustrations. Instinct in a spermatozoon. Instinct not

located in brain. Hammond's experiment. Clairvoyance.Clairaudience.

The intelligence of the subconscious mind is not of a magicalnature. Knowledge must be acquired. This knowledge is thefruit of hard work in education and training done by the applica-tion of the conscious mind. Nothing can take the place of this.Reason must be trained to act with accuracy, and the memorymust be stored with facts. No doubt there comes an inspirationand a vision to the artist, the musician, the inventor and othersthat exercise a creative power, but in no case does it enable them todispense with preliminary training and acquired technic. Noperson by mere cultivation of the subconscious mind can becomean artist, nor will it enable the ignoramus to speak like a Webster,or invent like an Edison. Inspiration puts no premium on lazi-ness any more than prayer does.Having made this rather comprehensive statement, the atten-

tion is now invited to what may prove a unique exception to thelaw, which, as above stated, ought to be quite satisfactory to themost materialistic thinker. Yet there is a fallacy in the statement.No doubt there comes an inspiration and a vision. No material-

ist should admit this for an instant yet he cannot deny it. In-spiration and vision do indeed come. Whence they come is aquestion with which in this chapter we are not concerned. It isenough to know that they come. If we speak of the experiencesof daily life, we may call this inspiration; but in explaining theintelligence of the great world of the living, below the grade ofman, we call it instinct.

42

instincts; intuition 43

How shall instinct (or intuition, which is the name we give itin man) be defined? It seems to be an ability to apprehend andknow the laws of nature, according to the needs of the organism inwhich it resides, anterior to and independent of education, experienceor reason. It cannot be habit nor use-inheritance. This waspointed out in the note at the end of Chapter II. This instinctwhich appears with the first life is as McDougall has pointed out,the coming in of a new factor. It is an effect of which the cause isunseen. But having appeared in the world, it at once sets up its

own chain of causation. Let us consider some illustrations amongthe lower animals.The commonest phenomena in this connection are the bird

building its own nest, the wonderful knowledge of how to fly whichis so puzzling to the inventors of aeroplanes, the incredible per-

formances of ants and bees with which Fabre and Maeterlinckhave made us familiar, the homing instinct in pigeons which isalso seen in the Newfoundland fishermen, the snakes which,through a labyrinth of grass and leaves, can make a bee line totheir holes, the calf, which knows how to use four legs and defythe law of gravitation the day it is born, and the baby that knowshow to suck but must learn how to blow.

This last illustration is only seemingly in the right category

(of animals), for the child has hardly begun to show intuition

before it exhibits a reasoning power to which animals have not

yet attained. How else can we explain the confusion in the baby'smind between a watch and a large button on a cloak, or betweena clock and the round, ticking instrument that registers the

temperature.

We have called this instinct intelligence because it knows howto adapt means to ends. But do not confuse intelligence with

intellect. All the more highly organized animals show very

remarkable intelligence. The bird, for example shows this intelli-

gence in the making of a nest. As it works in towards the center

it shows a discrimination between the rough and the soft. It

likes hair, yet it will accept substitutes. But what seems more

remarkable still is how it selects the place, how it knows where to

build. Its spontaneous song of joy, is this an intelligent act?


If we take up one example after another in this way we becomeconvinced that intelligence pervades the living world. The mani-festation of an unacquired and un-worked for intelligence is stillmore evident in those exceptional persons whom we call geniuses.How did they become able to do without education what noamount of education would enable them to do?

Let us consider what we call prodigies. Zerah Colburn, at theage of six years and with no knowledge of arithmetic except theten digits, could give in a few seconds the 16th power of 8, forexample, a number beginning with 281 trillions. Many can re-member the "Lightning Calculator" who could add a column offigures more rapidly than the eye can take in the figures. Thenormal action of the eye can be estimated by comparing it withthe ability to see the rain as individual drops standing stitl, whenilluminated by a flash of lightning. It is curious, unexpected, andtherefore instructive, to note that the power exhibited by a prodigytends to decrease and disappear when the attempt is made toeducate him. He does not know how he does it.The same intuition is exhibited by musical prodigies. The

instance of Blind Tom is especially in point because he was anidiot and had no mind which could be educated.There are those who can measure the acres in a field by simply

walking across it like Buxton. There are those who have intuitionof orientation, or direction, as the fishermen referred to above.There are those who have intuition of time and can wake up atany hour which they choose to impress on their subconsciousmind. The French philosopher, Jouffroy, writes,

I have this power in perfection, but I lose it if I depend on anyonecalling me. In this latter case my mind does not take the trouble ofreasoning the time. In the former it is necessary that it do so, other-wise the phenomena are inexplicable. Every one has or can make thisexperiment.

Jouffroy attributes this power to reason instead of intuition,but has overlooked the fact that a dog can exercise the same powerand the dog certainly does not reason. The writer has known ofa dog that might be sleeping in the afternoon but never failed towake up in time to meet his master at the station.

instincts; intuition 45

Bernheim, the successor of Liebault at Nancy states in "Sug-gestive Therapeutics:"

^

If a somnambulist is made to promise during sleep (hypnotic) that hewill come back on such and such a day, at such and such an hour, he willalmost surely return on the day and at the hour, although he has no remem-brance of his promise when he wakes up.

This experiment has been successful when the interval has beenstated as so many seconds. It takes some time to digest thesefacts.

The attention of the reader has already been called to theincredible intuition of the microscopic sperm that knows exactlywhat to do and does it. The writer is well aware that the material-istic biologist says we have no right to call this an exhibition ofintelligence. The reply is, no one has a right to call that phe-nomenon "behavior," which if exhibited by a scientist would becalled the quintessence of intelligence!

In connection with intuition it is interesting to note some ex-periments made by Surgeon General Hammond in Washingtonsome sixty years ago. He took out the brain of a frog and foundthat it would still perform instinctive acts, such as swimming,stopping and beginning again. The bird under like circum-stances could still fly and make a landing. A snake with its headcut off went straight to its hole. The surgeon was not trying tolocate the seat of instinct, if there be any such seat, but he cer-tainly proved incidentally that it did not function through thebrain.

In this connection the question of clairvoyance and clairaudiencemay be considered. The former, of which there are many caseson record, is the power to see things without the use of the eyes.The latter is the same thing in the case of hearing. Judge Trowardin his book, "The Law and the Word," narrates that while sittingin his study in London he seemed to find himself in an unknownlocality, and beheld, among other things, a Latin inscription on aruined abbey which he memorized. Later on he happened onthe same abbey which he at once recognized and found the in-scription. There are many interesting details. 1

1 The reader will find St. John 1:48 in point.


An ac count will be found in ''The Widow's Mite" by Funk, of aCaptain Aylsbury, who, when a boy, was nearly drowned inlanding on the island of Bally, Java, and in his great peril calledout "Mother" several times. Later on when he returned to hiscountry home in England, he found that his mother and sistershad been conscious of the cry and were much moved by it.Whether these phenomena are to be explained by intuition or

otherwise, they fall under its definition, i.e., of knowledge ac-quired otherwise than by the senses or by reason.The writer is aware that this chapter might be more effective

if considerably expanded but feels that the data given will provesufficient for those who like to think.

CHAPTER IV

Intuitive Deduction

The power in a thought. Consequences of a thought. How weknow them. The syllogism. The mind does not use them. De-ductions are intuitive. Fallacies are not in the intuition butin the premises. Falsity in premises not seen by dull intellects.Illustration. Intellect takes time, intuition is immediate. In-tuition a faculty of subconscious mind. False suggestions takenfor true. Illusion taken for reality. Misery and sickness due tofalse suggestion. The practical use of intuitive deduction.What it will do for you.

In each and every thought there lies a certain potentiality ofexpansion and more extended expression. This may not be clearat first, because we have been accustomed to look upon thought asthe conscious reaction of the mind to some stimulus, it may be aleaf of a tree, the aroma of coffee, or another thought. We havetried to persuade ourselves (if we have reasoned about it at all)that this thought has only a shadowy existence if any. We havebeen too often blind to the fact of a potency in thought, a potencythat manifests itself in consequences. We have been strangelyslow to realize that if a thought of any human mind could convulsethe world, then every thought of every mind has a potency in pro-portion to its scope.

This power which characterizes thought is creative. It mayresult in a steam engine, an aeroplane, a missionary, a suicide, oronly a pleasurable or disagreeable feeling. There is no thoughtthat has not some power, be it ever so trifling.Thought is a real thing and has to be reckoned with.The way thought manifests its power is by producing conse-

quences. This chapter has to do with the discovery of how weknow the consequences which each thought contains potentially.How they are brought into conscious recognition, or, as we havebeen accustomed to express it, how conclusions are deduced fromthem.

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In the pastand we must not forget that the last two centurieshave witnessed an intense struggle to realize everything in termsof matter or energyin the past the mind has been conceived ofas a sort of mechanical contrivance by which these conclusionswere obtained. It was ascertained that the ordinary mind wasa defective machine, which in some way was liable to turn outfalse conclusions. It was thought that this errancy resulted fromfalse processes or methods of thinking, and an elaborate systemcalled logic was invented to correct this defect by outlining theproper way to reason.

It was conceived that the mind having come into possession ofgeneral truths by induction or otherwise, was able, when someparticular fact presented itself, the statement of which containeda concept in common with the general truth, to draw a conclusionby a method similar to that of factoring and cancellation inarithmetic.

It was assumed that the mind reasoned in this way by formingsyllogisms. But the fact had to be recognized that the mind hasa surprising and disconcerting way of jumping at conclusions, andpassing from one to another with a swiftness that renders thenotion of forming syllogisms extremely improbable and reallyabsurd.Moreover the mind loathes syllogisms as every spontaneous

mind does grammar. It is impatient of artificialities. It wantsresults and wants them immediately.And it gets them immediately.Those who try to believe that the mind forms syllogisms, as it

were unconsciously, and reasons by this process, should considerthe fact that a child reasons and draws correct conclusions withno knowledge of syllogisms. If he had been unknowingly usingthem he might at least be supposed to recognize them when, inlater years, he unhappily studies about them. Instead of thatthey are utterly strange to him, he gets not one particle of helpfrom them, and his innocent soul forgets them as soon as possible.So much good does the study of logic do anyone so far as thedrawing of conclusions is concerned!

It is in vain that the logician points to the many fallacies thatthe mind falls into. Logic is intended to correct and prevent

INTUITIVE DEDUCTION 49

these fallacies. Very good. But logic is a method of reasoning.It is not reason, much less is it judgment. Now the fallacies thatlead to false conclusions are not found in the way we gain the con-clusion but in some subtle falsity in the premises. Logic was notintended to discover the truth or falsity of statements. Thepower that judges of the truth or falsity of a statement is theReason. This faculty in man is not omniscient, but one whosepower develops by education, and hence its judgments are notinfallible.

For example, when the reason is brought to bear on the state-ment that "things that increase wealth are desirable," and cannotsee the falsity of it and goes on to conclude that therefore selfish-ness is desirable, that person's reason has committed an error.It is moreover not an error of logic (though logic may serve topoint it out and name it) but it is a dullness of the reason, a lackof acuteness in the mind, that can only be bettered by education.The logician admits this and yet he cannot see that the mind

obtains its conclusionsmakes its deductionsnot by syllogismsor any other mechanical process but by intuition. Time may beneeded to scrutinize the quality of the statements whether theyare true or false or only conditionally true, but the conclusiondrawn never hangs in the air. You know the conclusion im-mediately because it is given by intuition.

This intuitive power of arriving at or deducing conclusions be-longs to the subconscious mind. We are not conscious of how weobtain a conclusion. We see it plainly enough, or perhaps weonly feel its truth, but how we know that it is a proper conclusionfrom the given truth cannot be explained. The logician maycrank his machine awhile and give us a proof that it is true, butwe do not need it. We knew it was true from the start. This isIntuitive Deduction.The subconscious mind draws deductions with great skill and

accuracy. But it is most important to bear in mind that it doesnot take cognizance of the truth or falsity of the statements from whichthe deduction was made. Conclusions can be as correctly drawnfrom false as from true thoughts. Sophistry and logic are booncompanions.


Hence, look to the truth of the thought and you may stake yourlife on the conclusion.

All this is of the utmost importance in understanding the work-ing of the subconscious mind.

It may truly be looked upon as a mechanism (in respect todeduction) of the most marvellous accuracy, but if you suggest afalsehood to it, it will not know it, but will work out the simplelogical conclusions.

Take as an illustration the case of the hypnotized men, in whom,through the sleep of the conscious mind, the lower mind hadsprung into consciousness. They were told they were goingfishing, which was a false statement. But note how quicklythey draw the first conclusion. To fish one needs rods. So witheach step. They knew by intuitive deduction exactly what to do.The fact that it was an illusion has nothing to do with the truthof the deductions.The illusion of the whole affair does not and cannot enter their

minds. This fact is exceedingly instructive. It was the sub-conscious mind of the hypotized men that was deluded. Theycould not see the illusion because the only REALITY for them wasthe thought impressed upon them. In the same way we may thinkof the thought behind the manifestations we call Nature, as thegreat reality. The things that stand for it often seem illusory.The subconscious mind lacks entirely the criteria by which we

judge of reality. It believes implicitly everything it is told. Ittakes your statement as a true proposition and at once arrives atevery logical deduction to be drawn from it. One illustration is asgood as a hundred, but the curious reader will easily find manymore.

It may be noted that if the subconscious mind acts on the falsethoughts that are impressed upon it by constant iteration thereought to be many evidences to be seen of this in the lives aroundus. If not to this cause, to what other cause can we attribute themisery and suffering that often come into the lives of good people?They must be attributed to the ignorance that causes falsethoughts whether in health or morals.There is, however, a wonderful and practical use to be made of

this power of intuitive deduction. It is within the reach of any-

INTUITIVE DEDUCTION 51

one, but very few persons know anything about it. It will doanything for you that can be done by deduction. It is onlynecessary that you should have clearly in mind the truth you wishto develop, the idea you wish to expand, and then submit it to thesubconscious mind to do it for you. But, as Jouffroy says, youmust have faith in it or it will not take the trouble, and you neednot expect that it will supply you with information you are toolazy to acquire for yourself.

Also you must give it time to act, when you are not confusingit by your conscious thoughts. This time will be usually at night.We have all heard of the advantage of sleeping over a thing. Butit is not necessary for you to wait till night if you are able toattain perfect passivity, letting go of everything, as it were,meditating without conscious reasoning. The night time is alsosubject to interruption, if your mind is excited by thoughts urgingin another direction.But given the right conditions which anyone may learn by

practice, the subconscious mind will solve problems for you. It isparticularly keen in mathematics. It will work out an orderlyarrangment of subject matter; it will suggest illustrations; indi-cate corollaries; and greatly expand the scope of the questionssubmitted to it. It will point to conclusion after conclusion withirrefutable logic and only stop with the ultimate deduction. Butremember! It does not know the truth or falsity of any proposi-tion you give it. The whole fabric it creates may be utterlylacking in verity. But if you start with a truth that worthilyenlists your keenest interest the result will surpass all expectations.

CHAPTER V

The Senses and Sensations

Animal senses like our own. Phenomena sensed or perceived, notthought about. Definition of sensing or perception. Threefacts to be clearly grasped. How percepts seem to animals, oneassociated with another, as smell with food. Animals cangrasp only individual things. No idea of common noun. Noplurals. Tax on memory. Everything seen on a plane. Noidea of "inside." Everything moving. Everything separate.No idea of a whole. Allied to sensing of external phenomena aresensations produced by internal phenomena, as pain, pleas-ure, etc.

If we are ever to get an idea of that spiritual part of ourselves

which we commonly call intellect, we must try to sense things asthe animal does.The animal senses are physically like our own. Some little

creatures may not have all five; some kinds have extraordinarydevelopment of touch, like the mole and insects with antennae.Others have remarkable keenness of sight, like the birds, and stillothers seem to depend chiefly on smell. No creature has all fiveequally developed.

It is evident that absolutely all that animals know of what isoutside of them comes through the senses. There is no powerwithin to help them as is the case with man. Animals do notknow, strictly speaking, they sense or perceive. It is true that thehigher animals seem to have something like knowledgethe dogseems to know about the bones he has buriedand it is just suchfacts as these that make classification so difficult. But anyknowledge even approaching to our knowldege would be sure toshow itself in unmistakable ways. When a dog winks at you, forexample, when burying a bone, it will be time to put him in adifferent class.

In other words the animal does not think about what he is doingor what he is looking at or what he is smelling. He has picturesand that is all.

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THE SENSES AND SENSATIONS 53

This power of "sensing" or perception may be defined as theability to become aware of things outside themselves by meansof the senses. It carries with it no conception of what the thingsare, nor how they are, (i.e., as parts of a whole), much less ofwhy they are, but only that they are.

In a treatment of psychology like that of the present book, it ishardly necessary to go into sense-perception as the older booksdo. It is enough to realize three things with distinctness:

1. The external sensory, the body organs where the sensorynerves terminate and form, as it were, surface receiving stations.Here takes place the contact, or what we suppose to be contact withwhat is not ourselves.

2. The portions of brain matter which are the inner receivingstations of the sensationsthe messages carried by the nerves.

3. An intelligence within us that receives these messages and isconscious of them as sense-percepts. In speaking thus, in anoffhand way, of this intelligence, we must not fail to realize thatit is something of which we cannot form the slightest conception,and in the presence of which the scientist must bow in awe. It isthe eternal mystery of mind.These sense-percepts embrace light, darkness, color, shape, sound,

feeling, sensations varying from hard to soft, wet to dry, rough tosmooth, sharp to dull, warm to cold, etc., and various sensationsof taste and smell. But these abstract terms are forever beyond ananimal. From these sensationsthese various qualities perceivedthrough the senseswe picture the world around us, the greatoutside, the not-I.

We must try to realize how percepts appear to animals and tobabies. A tree is outline and color, so is a rock, a building, ariver. There may be associated with this picture a sensation ofhardness, or wetness, or motion. The flower (and many thingsodorless to us) are sensed by smell as well as outline and color.There is no form to the tree but only outline. No notion of thick-ness but only a curving plane surface. Sight reveals nothing butsurfaces and directions, and these surfaces are associated withother things such as objects moving, giving food, affording aplace to lie down, giving sensations of pleasure or pain. Manythings are sensed as associated with food, as the dinner bell with


us and equally with the dog. A smell of fish galvanizes a cat; itmeans pleasant food. So the cackle of a hen to a hawk.

So we see that surfaces, sounds, odors, etc., are sensed as thingsoutside associated chiefly with the satisfaction of a sensation ofhunger.Now to help us in our further consideration (in chap. Ill, 3) it

is necessary to understand several points clearly. These are, thatanimals sense things (1) as individual objects; (2) as plane surfaceswith no idea of what is meant by "inside," and (3) as separatethings with no possible notion of what is meant by parts of a whole.That animals sense objects only as

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